Gronholm tops super special
Former world champion Marcus Gronholm kicked off his bid to end this season's World Rally Championship with a victory in perfect style on Thursday as he topped the times during the opening super-special stage
The Peugeot star was just 0.3 seconds quicker than Citroen's newly-crowned world champion Sebastien Loeb, with Peugeot's Harri Rovanpera third quickest, another 0.1s down.
Subaru's Petter Solberg, who has had a minor crash in the final morning shakedown, was fourth quickest - 0.8 seconds slower than Gronholm - with Belgian Francois Duval the fastest Ford in fifth place.
Markko Martin was sixth fastest on the stage in the second Ford, but he now faces a massive battle to stay in the rally. His engine suffered problems near the end of the stage, with flames seen licking underneath the bonnet, and the Estonian will face a nervous wait to see how terminal the damage is ahead of tomorrow morning's 10-minute service ahead of official action. If the problem is only turbo related then he should be able to continue.
Japanese Group N runner Fumio Nutahara topped the Production class field with the eight-quickest time from Ford Focus WRC privateer Antony Warmbold, while Jani Paasonen got his PWRC title bid off to a solid start with the 13th-fastest time overall.
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